Little Brown Donkey

On the last day of school last year, Ron picked me up as soon as I said goodbye to the kids, and we took a road trip.

What a great idea!  We drove to Custer State Park in South Dakota.  Let me just say, that going to a major tourist destination during the days before Memorial Day is the best.  We practically had the whole place to ourselves.

The weather was perfect.  We had no agenda, no real time table.   This little tourist trap sold peanuts to feed the prairie dogs.   There were hundreds of them, and they were pretty fat and pretty demanding.  But so cute!

Next stop... The Badlands!  What an amazing place.  We took the kids to The Badlands when they were about 9 and 12.  I remember telling the kids, "It's going to be kind of like a zoo... only for rocks instead of animals."  As you can imagine, that did not get them excited.  We've laughed about that description for years.  15 years later, it's still beautiful.

Bea... u... ti... ful!!!  

And we basically had The Needles Highway to ourselves.  

 





So relaxed... so weird that 24 hours earlier I was finishing the last day of school. 





One thing I was anxious to see again was the Chief Crazy Horse Monument.  They work on it every day, so I was thinking that there would be a noticeable change since I'd seen it 15 years before.
Hmmm... no...  not much changed.  Still huge... still working... still a long way from finished.  Still the story behind the family who works on it intrigues me.
It rained on us at Mount Rushmore, but that was okay.
We have a funny (well funny now) story about the last time we visited Rushmore.  We purposefully went on July 4 so we could see the fireworks show they do from the Presidents' heads.  Hmmm... Guess that was before Google when we could check schedules... The fireworks are done on July 3... Missed it...

The most memorable afternoon was when we hiked around Sylvan Lake.  There are certain places on earth that are so gorgeous that they don't seem real.  When you get to be in one of those places,  you just stop and appreciate the privilege of being there.  Like I said, we were there the days prior to Memorial day so we didn't have to share the trails or views.  On this particular hike, we met only one other couple.

So... what does all this have to do with the painting?

These funny little red donkeys came to greet us on the road.  I'm pretty sure they were begging for treats.  They were pretty persistent.. a.k.a. annoying.. but awfully cute.

Hee Haw!!!

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14"

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